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CES 2013 Gadgets We’d Actually Use in Real Life

International CES 2013 has wrapped, leaving us with a dizzying array of products, some realistic, others more hopeful visions of the future. But of all the products introduced at the event, which ones would people actually use in real life?

I know some new products are too good to be ignored, but sometimes you need to take a breather and ask yourself if you’re really going to use a product, or its just eye candy?

Here’s our list of products that are both eye candy and something people would actually use for months or years to come, not just for a fleeting few days.

There are a number of Windows and Android smartphones that can be charged wirelessly via a charging pad. It’s cool and all, but it’s not totally wireless since your charging pad is still wired to a wall socket. But that’s not the case with Fulton’s device-to-device wireless charging technology. By equipping twi devices with Qi, a technology developed by the Wireless Power Consortium, people can charge their phone to a tablet or vice versa by just placing the devices back-to-back with one another.

The technology is still not available as OEMs need to license and install it into their respective devices. The goal here is, in the future, an app will determine how much juice you’ll be giving to the other device and it will automatically stop charging when the limit is reached. Sounds like a win-win to us.

Though CNET was ordered by CBS to drop Dish’s Hopper in their “Best of CES 2013” nominees because of an ongoing lawsuit, the product is ingenious and I’m sure a lot of TV addicts will love to have this in their homes.

Dish Hopper is a whole-home DVR service that lets you record up to 2000 hours of video on its massive 2TB hard drive, record up to six channels via PrimeTime Anytime, lets you skip commercials, connects to the internet so you can have access to On Demand movies and TV shows, has SRS TruVolume which prevents volume fluctuations, and even comes with a remote control locator. Whew!

If you want to live healthy but find that tracking your progress is proving to be a difficult task, then FitBIt FLex maybe just what you need. FitBIt Flex is a soft bracelet made of rubber that’s designed to comfortably fit on your wrist so you can wear it all day for continuous tracking of steps taken, calories burned, distance travelled, active minutes, hours slept and even quality of sleep.

The bracelet is also water resistant and has a silent wake alarm feature. Via a mobile app, you can set your goal and if you reach your goal, the Flex’s LED lights will glow, signaling that you’ve achieved your goal. Available colors are black, teal, tangerine and slate and you can pre-order FitBit Flex now for $99.95.

Not everyone can afford a cloud subscription, so the next best thing is getting an external hard drive, preferably 1TB or higher to store all your prized digital possession. The trouble with most of these external hard drives is that in order to get the data stored in it, you need to connect it to computer.

And that’s the beauty of the Seagate Wireless Plus. It allows up to eight devices to wirelessly connect to it, accessing data via an accompanying Seagate Media App. It has an internal battery that lasts up to 10 hours so you can take it wherever you want to have your data readily available even without an internet connection – it’s like the physical version of the cloud.

If you’re a frequent flier who has the unfortunate experience of losing your luggage, would you be relieved in knowing that you’re not the only one who’ve had that experience? According to the FAA, “of the 140 million people who flew more than once last year, he said, 26 million lost their luggage — or, more correctly, an airline lost their luggage.” And this is why GlobaTrac is already swarmed with pre-orders when they unveiled the Trakdot at CES, even though the device won’t be available until April 2013.

Trakdot is a small, battery-powered, GSM device that you put in your suitcase. It sends a message to your phone or phones, depending on how many phones you’ve synced Trakdot to, informing you of where your suitcase has landed. If your suitcase lands at a different airport than you, though Trakdot won’t really solve the problem, at least you’ll know where to find your suitcase. Trakdot is priced at $49.99.

About Mellisa Tolentino

Mellisa Tolentino started at SiliconANGLE covering the mobile and social scene. Over the years, her scope expanded to Bitcoin as well as the Internet of Things. SiliconANGLE gave Mellisa her break in writing and it has been an adventure ever since. She’s from the sunny country of Philippines where people always greet you with the warmest smile. If she’s not busy writing, she loves reading, watching TV series and movies, but what she enjoys the most is playing or just chilling on the couch with with her three dogs Ceecee, Ginger, and Rocky.